Latin American Art in Qatar

Juanito Laguna Dreams in Qatar: Latin American Art Shows Its Value in One of the Richest Countries in the World
An exhibition featuring 170 works from Malba and Eduardo Costantini opened today in Doha, as part of an annual program dedicated to Argentina and Chile.

DOHA – Juanito Laguna is asleep, sitting among the garbage, holding an airplane. Men dressed in impeccable white robes in the Qatar National Museum watch intrigued, this young man barely covered by a dirty shirt and espadrilles, who has come from Latin America to one of the richest countries in the world.
With one of the largest gas reserves on the planet and high GDP per capita, there are no slums here like those that inspired Antonio Berni to imagine the life of his iconic figure with waste. “He's a poor boy, but not a poor boy,” the Rosario-born artist clarified. “He's not defeated by circumstances, but a person full of life and hope, who overcomes his circumstantial misery because he senses he lives in a world full of promise.”

Reaching new audiences and building bridges between very different cultures to “enrich our vision” is precisely what the exhibition Latin American: Modern and Contemporary Art from the Malba and Eduardo Costantini Collections aims to do. It is the first large-scale exhibition dedicated to the region in Western Asia and North Africa. It opened today with a meal prepared by three-Michelin-starred chef Mauro Colagreco from La Plata. A more than appropriate choice within the framework of an annual interdisciplinary program sponsored by Qatar to promote the cultures of Argentina and Chile. In a room in this building designed by Jean Nouvel, the Pritzker Prize-winning French architect, Juanito will coexist until July with works coveted by the most prestigious museums on the global scene: among them Frida Kahlo's Self-Portrait with Monkey and Parrot, exhibited last year at the Venice Biennale; an installation by Cecilia Vicuña, winner of the Golden Lion at the previous edition of the event; Harmony by Remedios Varo; and a painting by Wifredo Lam that will be part of his retrospective at MoMA starting in November. Also on display is Diego Rivera's Dance in Tehuantepec (1928), which set a record for Latin American art when Costantini purchased it for $15.7 million. There are 170 works by 109 artists from Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, Paraguay, and Cuba selected by María Amalia García, chief curator of Malba, and Issa Al Shirawi, head of International Exhibitions at Qatar Museums. One of the six sections revisiting the Tercer Ojo exhibition includes kinetic pieces by Julio Le Parc, Martha Boto, and Gregorio Vardanega, as well as the Bichos (Bugs) created by Lygia Clark in the 1960s, mobile structures that challenge us to question physical certainty with their instability.

The exhibition is complemented by the immersive experience offered by La escultura de los sueños (The Sculpture of Dreams), an inflatable structure by Marta Minujín installed in the museum's central courtyard, which has previously toured Times Square, the esplanade of the Palacio Libertad, and the Roma Convention Center.

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